Method and apparatus for identifying an electric load via RFID tag associated with a power plug

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for identifying a load powered by an intelligent AC outlet, sub outlet and socket via an AC plug including an attached or otherwise associated RFID tag selected from a group of RFID tags structured to fit a given standard AC plug size and shape for attachment to said plug about the plug power pins opposite and facing an RFID antenna included in said intelligent outlet. The tags can be pre-coded or individually coded to identify the load powered via said plug.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention is related to a method and an apparatus for measuring andupdating data pertaining to electric power consumed by a load throughpower outlets and terminals via optical and RFID signals.

2. Description of the Prior Art

AC power outlets, AC power cable assemblies and other AC power sourcesthat are the power connecting points in residences, businesses,industry, entertainment and public facilities including hotels and otherbuildings do not provide and/or generate data pertaining the electricalpower being consumed or current being drained through them, be it by arandom load or by appliances that are fixedly connected to the AC powersuch as lights, HAVC and boilers.

The demand for power saving and consumption reporting is becoming aglobal issue that needs to be addressed. Electrical systems and devicesshould be provided with the circuits for reporting power consumption,current drain and/or appliance statuses. Such circuits, includingintelligent reporting AC outlets are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos.7,639,907, 7,649,727, 7,864,500, 7,973,647, 8,041,221, 8,148,921,8,170,722, 8,175,463, 8,269,376 and in the U.S. patent application Ser.Nos. 12/945,125, 13/086,610 and 13/349,939.

Dedicated controllers, video interphone monitors and shopping terminalsfor communications within a building pertaining current drain, powerconsumption and appliances statuses including the reporting of such datavia the Internet and other networks are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos.6,603,842, 6,940,957, 7,461,012, 8,117,076 and the U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/599,275. All listed above patents andapplications are incorporated herein by reference.

The disclosed AC outlets and other AC power sources need to be updatedat times, particularly with the need to verify the power consumedvalues. The consumed AC power value is calculated on the basis of thecurrent drain and the measured voltage which mandates the measuring ofboth the voltage level and the current value along the AC sinusoidalcurve at high speed intervals.

The sinusoidal curve of the AC power line is distorted due to unevenloads, switching power supplies and other nonlinear loads affecting theshape of the sinusoidal curve, at each AC outlet, sub outlet or other ACterminals.

As the AC distortion by the loads are being changed at random and/ortheir current drain value changes over time the accuracy of the measuredpower consumption at the source need to be checked and calibrated. Eachintelligent AC outlet and other AC current drain reporting device, be itvia lightguide (POF), fiber optic cable, RF, IR or low voltage bus line,the AC outlet must be updated with a given load, the applianceparticulars and the measured power consumption must be calibrated.

The AC outlet particulars, including sub outlets and the particulars ofthe connected appliance or the load consuming the power, including anyother reported data must be formed into a simple code or command.Moreover, the updating and/or the calibrating hand tool, termed loaderor calibrator, is made such that tenants or dwellers that are nottechnical savvy will be able to operate comfortably. It is the tenantsor dwellers that need to process the loading, updating, upgrading,adjusting and/or calibrating without the help of an electrician or acommunication IT expert.

The loader or the calibrator should be a low cost device, such that theuser can afford to keep at his residence or office, for updating andcalibrating AC outlets regularly when an appliance is being plugged intothe AC outlet. Or keep it just for random use when updates are needed.

The use of an IR remote control for optically updating appliances and ACoutlets particulars for identifying the appliances, the outlets andtheir locations are disclosed in the above US patents, specifically inU.S. Pat. Nos. 8,041,221, 8,148,921 and 8,170,722. However all thedisclosed remote controls are used for updating particulars of the ACoutlets, appliances and light bulbs, but not for adjusting, calibratingand/or verifying the power consumption reporting. A single simple to useand a low cost device is needed for the updating, adjusting andcalibrating the power reporting accuracy, including the updating of homeautomation operation particulars and controls.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to provide a simplified methodand apparatus for loading, updating, adjusting and calibrating ACdevices at the source point, such as AC outlets, AC current sensors andother AC wiring devices including switches, dimmers, AC power breakersand AC controllers such as controllers for curtains or heaters or airconditioners that include current sensing circuits and/or powerconsumption reporting circuits.

The terms adjusting, adjustment, calibrating or correcting hereafterrefer to a procedure to ensure that the adjusted, calibrated orcorrected AC device will output a coded signal representing accuratelythe current drained and/or the AC power consumed through it.

The term coded signal hereafter refers to coded signals includingoptical signal comprising visual light or IR propagated via lightguide,optical fiber cable and combination thereof, optical signal comprisingUV, visual light, IR and combination thereof propagated in air in lineof sight, RF signal propagated in air including RFID propagated inclosed proximity and low voltage electrical signal propagated via busline and other communication lines.

The term install is a term used for fresh loading of data or forloading, updating, modifying, adjusting or calibrating data stored in amemory hereafter refers to a data comprising said coded signal foridentifying said AC device itself and/or the power consumed or thecurrent drained by a load connected to it, randomly and/or permanentlyand/or for data identifying the load.

The term load hereafter refers to an appliance that consumes electricalpower and/or draining current through an AC device directly or via anextension power cable or power cable assembly comprising a plurality ofAC socket. The plurality of AC outlets of cable assembly or of anextension power cable assembly or of an AC outlet adaptor comprisingplurality of AC sockets, each such socket is termed hereafter a suboutlet or socket.

The term AC device, or AC outlet, or sub outlet, or socket, or ACterminal hereafter refers to an intelligent AC device, an intelligent ACoutlet, an intelligent socket, an intelligent sub outlet and anintelligent AC terminal comprising current sensing and/or powerconsumption measuring, calculating and communicating circuits. The termAC outlet hereafter and in the claims covers any and all otherintelligent AC devices unless the term is specifically identified assuch.

The term communicating circuits include one way or two way communicationdrivers and input/output elements or ports for exchanging, receiving ortransmitting the coded signals.

The terms loader, calibrator, opto loader, RF loader, RFID loader andpower setter refer to a hand held units of the present inventionincluding the accessories forming together the apparatus for calibratingthe intelligent AC devices and the loads powered through them, includingthe adjusting and/or calibrating the accuracy of the communicated datapertaining to the current drained or the power consumed via the ACdevices to a current drain receiver, power consumption data receiver anda combination thereof.

The switching of a load on and off by transmitting a visual lightsignal, such as a red (650 nm) light signal generated by an LED of acontrol device to a photo receiver of an AC switching device connectedto a load or to a photo receiver of the load via a lightguide is a basicfeature of the referenced US patents and applications. The otherfeatures are the connection simplicity of lightguides to appliances viatheir power cables, plugs and sockets and the simple attachment processof lightguide to AC devices for exchanging the on-off and moreelaborated commands for operating the appliances.

The use of optical signals comprising visual light, UV or IR signals,introduces a new medium for the home automation and control, includingconfirmation, the detailed electrical systems power consumption andstatuses reporting at real time are the other features of the referencedUS patents and applications.

The lightguides or the plastic optical fiber or POF offer the mostefficient communication solutions and immunity to Electro MagneticInterference (EMI), unlike the need to insulate and shield controlsignals in copper cables from EMI, or insulate an RF signal frominterferences or cross talk noises and disturbances within theelectrical boxes, wirings and system, is the another advantage for usingoptical signal as the main transport of signals.

The need to electrically insulate the signal cables from the powerlines, elements and devices that feed AC and/or DC power to appliances,including power switches, light dimmers, AC outlets, AC socket, AC subsockets and other AC and/or DC power devices is an absolute must and amajor obstacle in mixing or mingling low voltage control wires withpower wires and devices.

Mingling low voltage lines with AC wiring devices is prohibited by thebuilding and the electrical codes and the use of lightguides, known asplastic optical fiber (POF), being a nonflammable and a perfectinsulator, is yet another major advantage of the referenced US patensand the references in the pending applications to an optical grid.

Further, AC power devices may include an AC or DC current sensor orsensing circuit including optical transceivers for outputting opticalsignal of a given current drain and state, such as on-off state,stand-by state or provide current drain levels data, such as disclosedin the referenced US patents and applications.

Another object of the referenced US patents and applications is tooperate and monitor the state of lights and appliances including thereal time monitoring of the entire electrical consumption within theresidence or office or other premises through a video interphones and/or“shopping terminals” and/or via a communication network.

The use of communication networks or the Internet enables thepropagation of control codes and signals via the video interphonesand/or the shopping terminals and/or by other dedicated controllers tooperate and receive statuses and power consumption from the differentappliances.

The using of an IR driver and RF drivers circuits as described in theU.S. Pat. Nos. 7,639,907, 7,649,727, 7,864,500 or other driver circuitsenables an unattended control of appliances and loads. “Shoppingterminals” are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,290,702 and 8,117,076.Video interphones systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,923,363,6,603,842 and 6,940,957.

The term appliance refers to any and all AC or DC operated appliances,products and machines, such as A/V appliances including television, A/Vrecorders, music, and peripherals; PC and peripherals such as printer, ahub and a router; air condition, heater, environment equipment andsensors; water boilers, kitchen appliances, laundry appliances andgarden appliances; curtains, shutters and blinds; lights includingincandescent, fluorescent and LED; security devices including cameras,recorders, access control, fire, gas and intruder sensors andperipherals; any other AC or DC powered products that can be remotelyoperated or that respond to and can communicate their operating status,including propagating data of current drain, power consumption andstatuses through their power cable, power plug, power socket and poweroutlet.

The terms plug, plugged, plugging, attaching, attached, mated and matingrefer to the act of connecting or joining an AC plug to an AC socket.The terms mated and mating are mainly used in the claims to describe theact of introducing an RFID tag of an AC plug into an RFID antenna of anAC socket by joining the plug with the socket.

The terms file, files, page and pages refer to the memory files andpages of the CPU included in the AC outlets and terminals and in theloader or calibrator.

The terms photo, or opto, or optical relating to elements, parts,structure and techniques in the following description are one of thesame.

The term lightguide coupler refers to a semiconductor circuit structureincorporating optical transmitter and/or optical receiver and/or opticaltransceiver and/or photovoltaic cell including an optical access alignedwith the optical receiver, or the optical transmitter or the opticaltransceiver. The optical access is also termed hereafter as optoport.

The optoport structure may include (built-in) lightguide holderstructure for introducing the lightguide or an optical fiber cable tothe optical access, or such lightguide holder may be a separatestructure for attachment to the photo coupler package and access.

The term live AC refers to the “hot line” of the AC power or mains, asopposed to the neutral line of the AC power or mains.

The term transmitter refers to an LED, laser or other optical emittingdevices that transform electric signals into UV, IR or visual lightsignals, or to an electric signal transmitter for transmittingelectrical signals via low voltage bus line, RF in air or RFID in closeproximity.

The term transmitting or propagating an optical signal refers to a UV,IR or visual light emission from a transmitter, in air such as from handheld remote control or into lightguides or into an optical grid oflightguides or fiber optic cables.

The term receiver refers to a photo diode, pin diode, photo transistor,CMOS, CCD or other photovoltaic or photoelectric receivers that convertUV, IR or visual light into electrical signals or electrical charge, orto an electrical signal receiver for receiving low voltage coded signalvia bus line, RF signal in air or RFID in close proximity.

The term receiving optical signal refers to the receiving of UV, IR orvisual light, in air in line of sight, such as from an hand held IRremote control or from a loader, or via lightguides or optical fibersonto an optoport or an optical receiving surface of the receiverdirectly or via a transparent materials including prisms, half mirrors,lenses, filters and other optical structures.

The term transceiver refers to a combined transmitter and receiverincluding a transceiver embedded into a semiconductor package orattached to an optical prism for propagating two way optical signalsthrough a single optical cable such as the lightguides or the opticalfibers by deflecting or directing a received optical signal to thereceiver and allowing the transmitted optical signal to pass into theoptical cable.

The term transceiver includes a transceiver that propagates two wayoptical signals via two optical cables or for a transceiver forexchanging low voltage electrical signal via bus line, RF signal in airor RFID in close proximity.

The term optical prism refers to a structure for deflecting and/orseparating two way optical signals (the received and the transmittedoptical signals) propagated via the prism to and from a singlelightguide or optical fiber.

Said prism comprises an optical device selected from a group ofpolarizing optical filters, given visual wave length pass filters,visual band pass filters, given wave length UV pass filters, given wavelength IR pass filters, given wave length UV cut filters, given wavelength IR cut filters, half mirrors with a given reflectance values andcombinations thereof, wherein said filters and/or said half mirrors formsaid prism or are attached to said prism and/or are coated onto saidprism and/or are introduced into the prism material in the form of atint, particles or a process.

A prism structure similar to the structure disclosed in the U.S. Pat.No. 8,175,463 is a molded clear plastic structure for aligning phototransmitter and photo receiver into the center of the optical access fordirectly linking the transmitter and the receiver in line into a singleterminated end of a lightguide or fiber optic cable.

Even though an UV, IR or visual light may be recited individually in thefollowing descriptions, the UV, IR and the visual light term may referto all. The term light, UV, IR or visual light is used alternately to anoptical signal and should not be restrictive to the one or the other,unless it is so described.

The current drain data or the on-off state data is generated andpropagated in response to the received operational command, such ason-off, or in response to an inquiry command (a request for data) on thebasis of the current sensor output, or in response to a change in thedetected current drain above a given parameter, thereby providing errorfree remote controlling and status reporting of lighting and appliances.

Further, the current drain, the power consumption and other data thatare propagated in response to a power-on command by confirming that theload is switched on, is a perfect solution for controlling the energyconsumption in real time, and for providing error free energymanagement. By such return confirmation the home automation controller,the video interphone or the shopping terminal are updated at all timeswith illuminators and other appliance's “on state”, or “off state” whenthe command was to switch off the appliance.

It is preferable that the IR, RF or RFID addressing and commands areappended or annexed to the codes such as the codes shown in U.S. Pat.No. 8,170,722 that are common with wired commands via bus lines and/orwith the optical signals propagated via lightguides. Similar appendedcommands are preferably apply to an RF remote control signals used forA/V appliances.

The IR signals use low frequency clock 38 KHz˜100 KHz, with 38.5 KHzbeing the most popular clock frequency. The disclosed U.S. Pat. No.7,639,907 referred to above, generate different clock frequencies,addresses, protocols and commands for controlling literally every IRremote controlled appliance.

The referenced US patents and application provide circuits and memoryfor reading and storing the commands from the original IR or RF remotecontrol units, supplied with the different appliances. Another method isthe downloading of the many openly published protocols and commands,including the downloaded codes and integrating the IR and RF remotecontrol command into the coding program as updated on the basis of theappliance location within the premises.

This object of the present invention is attained by a simple loader forrecording the location of the appliance's AC outlets within the premisesor the location “addresses” and other particulars into the AC devicesand/or into the appliances. This setting includes manual digitalswitches and/or the loading of the location address, such as room numberthrough a program embedded into the original remote control unit of theappliance.

The loader provide for setting addresses and other particulars to theappliances, such a TV in a room number 1˜8 and to the lighting fixturesincluding the associated AC outlets, the AC switches, the AC sockets,the AC plugs, the in wall controllers, the current sensors and otherwiring devices, elements and peripherals.

The loaders and the programs enable to setup an error free, simplifiedreliable indexing for the identifying of a load and its location withinthe premises. It is clearly advantageous to have simplified method toset the indexes without error including the providing of an automaticerror detection, particularly at time of installation.

Yet another object of the present invention is to use the loader forprocessing the introduction of an RFID tag to the AC plug of a givenappliance for use within the premises for identifying and indexing theappliance connection to an AC outlet or sub outlet at random forself-updating the home automation controller via the optical grid and/orthe bus line of the automation system, whenever an appliance isconnected or plugged into a given AC outlet or sub outlet.

The reference to home automation controller hereafter is to a panel withcontrol keys or touch screen and/or remote control devices, or keypadsand circuits similar to the video interphone and/or the shoppingterminal disclosed in the US patents and the pending US applicationsreferred to above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a loader for updating and calibrating thepower consumption reporting via optical and RF signals of the preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a loader similar to the loader of FIG. 1with RFID reader for updating the propagated data with applianceparticulars read from RFID tags;

FIGS. 3A˜3F illustrate the loaders variations including touch screentypes, touch screen combined with keys types and keys with small displaytype covering the types shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows wave forms of the phase shifted AC current and the ACvoltage and the timed measuring positions for calculating the actualpower consumption;

FIG. 5A is a block diagram of the current drain and power consumptionreporting circuit including the optical and RF transceivers, comprisingthe circuits of the AC devices and outlets and similar to the circuitsof the loaders shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2;

FIG. 5B is a version of the block diagram of FIG. 5A as used for ACoutlet including setting switches;

FIG. 5C is another version of the block diagram of FIG. 5A as used forAC terminal that is optically updated and calibrated by the loader ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6A is an illustration of the loader of FIG. 1 as used for readingthe particulars of an AC outlet;

FIG. 6B shows the displaying of the read particulars or data by theloader of FIG. 6A;

FIG. 6C is an illustration showing the extended details of thepreparation for reading the particulars of a load and of an AC outlet bythe loader of FIG. 2 via RFID tag and antennas;

FIG. 7A is an illustration of a setup shown in FIG. 6A for measuring thepower consumed by a load;

FIG. 7B shows the displays of the measured, compared, adjusted andcalibrated power consumption of the preferred embodiment of the presentinventions;

FIG. 7C is an illustrated exploded view of a combination loader of FIG.1 and FIG. 2 including the elements of the optical ports, RFID tags andthe measuring accessories of the combination loader of the preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8A is an illustration of the installing steps of room and AC outletaddresses and the particulars of the load;

FIG. 8B shows the display of the install particulars;

FIG. 8C illustrates the optical cable grid for linking the powerconsumption data between AC devices and data receivers for powerconsumption or current drain and the set up for propagating optical datafrom the loader to the data receivers;

FIG. 9A is an illustration of the steps of adjusting the measuredvoltage, current and power consumption by a combination loader of thepreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9B shows the displays of the adjustment steps of FIG. 9A;

FIGS. 10A and 10B are tables showing appliance codes as used for RFIDtags of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11A is an illustration of RFID tags in a label form stuck ontoribbon base and sheets;

FIG. 11B is an illustration showing the installing codes into recordableRFID labels of the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 11C is an illustration showing the reading of codes from asequentially coded RFID labels of the preferred embodiment; and

FIG. 11D is an illustration showing the proximity for installing codesinto recordable RFID labels and reading codes of a recorded RFID labelsor tags by the loaders of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Shown in FIG. 1 is a hand held tool 100 of the preferred embodiment forupdating and calibrating the AC outlets, the AC sub outlets and other ACterminals feeding AC power to a randomly plugged AC power cables of anelectrical appliances and/or of accessories of such appliances, such aspower supplies or adaptors and/or fixedly attached appliances such asair conditioners and/or water boiler and/or heater and/or coolers orfans and the like.

The hand held tool 100 termed a loader, adjuster or calibrator providean important function, which is to measure and calibrate the reading ofan intelligent AC outlet 50 and current sensor 51 shown in FIGS. 5B and5C. The AC power consumption values differ from a DC power consumption.This is because of the shifting of the AC current phase versus the ACvoltage phase, and the shifting depends on the capacitance or inductancevalues of the power consuming appliance.

A pure resistive load such as thermal wire heater does not shift thephase, but most of the appliances operate motors and are powered viaswitching power supplies which are both capacitive and inductive, suchas the load 58 of FIG. 5A shifts the phases of the AC current versus theAC voltage and moreover, power supplies, particularly switching powersupplies distort the shape of the sinusoidal curve of the AC power.

FIG. 5A shows a block diagram of the current sensor circuits includingthe power consumption reporting circuit and the communication circuitsof the preferred embodiment of the present invention, using the lowohmic current sensing resistor RS. Similar circuits are disclosed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/239,939.

The circuits including the CPU or analog/digital processor 2, thecurrent signal amplifier 3 and the power supply regulator 57 are thebasic circuits for the current sensing and processing including themeasuring of the power consumed by a load 58 as used also for the ACoutlet of FIG. 5B. The load is shown as an ohmic RL, an inductance LLand/or capacitance CL loads and combinations thereof.

The VCC power source in FIG. 5A is fed via the protection resistor R2,the capacitor C3 and the diode D2 to the input terminal of the DCregulator 57. The regulator 57 shown is the well known analog voltageregulator IC available by many IC manufacturers at very low cost. Theshown regulator input circuit includes the filter capacitor C1 forproviding low rippled DC input to the regulator and a zener diode ZD1for protecting the regulator from voltage surges, commonly affecting theelectrical systems. The output of the regulator includes a storagecapacitor C2 for maintaining sufficient charge to power the currentsensor circuits to complete the exchanging and/or the reporting of powerstatus and/or the power consumed.

The live AC line is shown connected to the ground which is also thenegative line of the VCC. The VCC shown is, for example, as a positive3.3V, but can be 5V or 1.8V or any voltage commonly applied to a CPU andother ICs.

As the live AC is connected to the negative pole of the DC supply, thepower feed into the input terminal of the voltage regulator 57 isconnected to and fed from the neutral AC line to the rectifying diode D2via the series capacitor C3, an AC grade capacitor, and depending on thepower line voltages, may range from, 0.22 micro farad for the 230/240VAC (EU, UK) and up to 0.22˜0.33 micro farad for 100/120 VA (Japan/US)also considering the power frequency 50 Hz or 60 Hz respectively.

The VCC of the loader however is powered by alkaline or other knownbatteries 1B or by rechargeable batteries via a charging circuit orcharging connector (not shown). The random use of the loader will notdrain or discharge the batteries fast, and the batteries used tocalibrate, upgrade and download outlet addresses will last long for thepurpose of supporting the smooth accurate operation of the automationprogram.

The current sensing resistor RS or R10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is a lowohmic resistor, such as 1 mOhm or 2 mOhm and will develop small signalssuch as micro or milli volt signal for current drain in the ranges ofapproximately 1 W˜3 KW (8 mA˜16 A).

The signal amplifier 3 is the well known linear amplifier or dualamplifiers IC, connected in series for amplifying the signal developedover the sensing resistor R10. The amplifier 3, combining two amplifiersalso known as operational amp. or op. amp., with each amp is set toamplify by, for example, up to a factor of 100 and the two in the seriescan therefore provide up to 10,000 amplification factor. The linearamplifying of the signals generated by the 10 mA˜16 A current drain willbe well within the linear range of the amplifier 3.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) or analog/digital processor 2hereafter referred to as CPU includes analog to digital and digital toanalog converter ports, digital ports and analog ports. The CPU 2 is acommonly available CPU, such as 8 bit or 16 bit low cost, low powerconsuming processor including a memory. The CPU operates on 1.8V or3.3V, with an operating current such as less than 1 mA and a sleepingcurrent of few micro Amperes.

The amplified current signal is fed from the amplifier 3 to the portI/OC and based on the amplification control status and the datapertaining to the converted analog current signal to digital, the CPU isprogrammed to adjust via the I/O A port the amplification factor of theamplifier 3 to obtain the optimum amplification as programmed,commensurate with the received signal to be in mid or most linear rangeof the resistor RS or R10 selected range.

As shown in FIG. 5A and referred to above, the load 58 is not a pureohmic or a resistive load. It may be a motor and/or a capacitor and/or aswitching power supply commonly used with electrical appliancesincluding PCs. Non ohmic loads cause a phase shift between the voltagecurve and the current curve and/or distort the curve by switching powersupplies. FIG. 4 shows two sinusoidal curves, the voltage curve 80˜86and the current curve 90˜96, which are shifted by a random angle, causedby an unknown combinations of the RL, LL, and CL load.

The voltage curve 90˜96 is curve of a reference voltage fed to the I/OVof the CPU from the neutral AC terminal N via a large ohmic divider R1and R3, with R1 value is in a range such as 0.5˜1.0 Mohm and R3 value isfew Kohm, to provide an optimum reference signal level representing thepower line voltage, the 120V/60 Hz of the US or the 230V/50 Hz of theEuropean power line. The current curve 90˜96 is the amplified currentsignal and an accurate reference of the current drain value.

A zero crossing 80 of the reference voltage curve is the start positionor point in time for the processing of power consumption reading. Thecurrent phase shift is evident from the deviation of the zero crossingof the current curve.

The zero crossing 80 shown is the cross from negative to positive, atthat same time, the start position time 90, the current curve is shownto be close to the peak of the negative curve, or at a phase shift ofmore than 90°.

The processing shown in FIG. 4 is the measuring of the five referencecycles 81˜85 and the phase shifted five current cycles 91˜95. Themeasuring positions or points in time are shown in FIG. 4 as ten pointsspread over the voltage curve as 81-1, 82-1, 83-2, 84-3 and 85-4 for thevoltage points of time, coincide with the exact point of times over thecurrent curve shown as 92-4, 93-5, 94-6 and 95-8. The end of processingpositions or point of times are shown as 86 and 96. The shown timeinterval is 2 mSec for 50 Hz and 16.6 mSec for 60 Hz. The vertical linesdivide one cycle into ten points of time, therefore the interval betweeneach point of time is the time duration of one cycle divided by 10.

The time interval or the number of measure points during one cycle (Hz)directly relates to the accuracy of the measurement, same applies to thenumber of measured AC cycles in one measuring round. Both are a decisionto be made, in which higher accuracy require more measured AC cycles(Hz) in one measuring round and a decrease in time intervals or anincrease in the number of measuring point.

The power consumption is the product of a calculated sinusoidal VxAgraphs created on the basis of the measured values at each point of timesimultaneously and summed up per each cycle on the basis of the voltagereferenced timing. The shown five cycles 81˜85 in FIG. 4 are an exampleof one round of measurement repeated, for example, every two seconds.When a calculation round is programmed to be carried every two secondsthe total of five measured cycles will be multiplied by a factor of 20for 50 Hz and 24 for 60 Hz (50:5/sec.×2 sec.) or (60:5/sec.×2 sec.).This will represent the power consumed in two seconds.

By the above it should be obvious that the power consumption calculationby the current sensors of the present invention can be simplified andperformed by a low cost Central Processing Unit (CPU) or ananalog/digital processor both are available from many IC manufacturers.It should be also obvious that the current sensor of the presentinvention can be made small in size, fit into AC outlets and into thehand loader or adjuster of the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

The calculated power consumed values are stored and updated in thememory included in the CPU for reporting as programmed to a controller.The calculated power consumption value is converted into a predefinedprogrammed protocol that includes particulars of the load or applianceand the location of load and/or of the AC outlet. The stored and updateddata in the memory are the coded protocols.

The referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722 teaches the coding of powerconsumption command protocols and the signal structure of the protocolreporting. The command structure is designed to be short commandcomprising five bytes only that include all the necessary data forreporting power consumption, the load particulars and its location.

The power consumption reporting AC outlet disclosed in the U.S.application Ser. No. 13/349,939 feeds the VCC supply to the sensorcircuits only when a current is drained through a load. The shortcommand is necessary particularly when the load is switched off or theplug is removed from the AC outlet. A short command is therefore neededto minimize the size of the storage capacitor C2 by reducing the time ittakes to complete the status reporting when the VCC is cut, such astransmitting “the load is switched-off” protocol.

Short protocol is critical as the LED draws up to 5˜6 mA from thestorage capacitor C2 to transmit responses for responding to inquirycommands from a controller when no VCC is present. Longer protocol willrequire bigger capacitor with large physical size.

The DC current to the RF transmitter for generating output of severalmicro watt is small, however, here too it is preferable to minimize thelength of the reporting protocols because of the RFID exchanges whichare discussed later. The block diagram of FIG. 5A shows the RFtransceiver 6 and optical transceivers 5-1 to 5-n, but in systemsoperating through optical network only the RF transceiver 6 is notneeded and is not used. Regardless it is possible to include both the RFand the optical transceiver in the circuit for combining wirelesscommunications including IR, RF, RFID and optical via optical cablenetwork, all in parallel.

The two way buffer 4 is a well known amplifier-buffer, available insmall surface mounted IC packages from many semiconductor manufacturers.Its purpose is to interface the signals and their levels and feed thetwo way signals between the transceivers 6 and 5-1˜5-n to the CPU 2 I/OT (transmit) and I/O R (receive) ports.

The shown display 3D is an LCD with touch screen icons TS1˜TSn. Thetouch screen icons are drawn as a contact of a switch to be touched andactivated by a finger. The number of the touch screen icons is n andsize, shape, color and content can be programmed into the display toidentify the function of the icon. Several display pages can be formed,for different application, such as reading, measuring, comparing,loading, appliances pages, AC outlet pages and any other needed pagesfor entry, reading and processing data.

Shown in FIGS. 3C˜3F are other display screens 2D and 3D, combined withpush switches shown as K1˜Kn. The switches and the touch screen iconsare functionally operating the same way, and are individually identifiedfor feeding a touch or push command to the CPU 2 via the I/O S (switch)port that responds identically to an activated touch icon or pushswitch. The display itself is responding to the touch icons and the pushswitches as programmed and fed from the CPU via the I/O D (display)port, shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

For multi AC outlet sockets that are mounted inside electrical wallboxes, it is preferable to use one CPU for calculating and reporting theindividual consumption via each single outlet socket. The circuit is notshown as the difference for such multi socket AC outlet will beadditional optical transceivers or as explained later RFID transceiver.This including plurality of current sensors 27 each combining thecurrent sensor RS and the signal amp. 3 will be substantially cheaperversus the cost of an individual circuit 50 as used for each AC outlet.

Same applies to the AC sub outlets of the well known extension cableassemblies such as using 3 or 6 sub outlets, as disclosed in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/599,275.

Depending on the selected CPU and the analog/digital processor 2 thereare many such known devices that include I/O ports that require noadditional buffer as they can be programmed to output and receivevarying signals commensurate with the signal exchanged between the CPUand the transceivers. For such devices the two way buffer 4 is notneeded and is not used.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722 teaches the use of hand held loading devices forloading addresses, locations and appliances particulars. It also teachesthe setting of the particulars via digital switches of a variety of ACdevices, including plugged in-line current sensors adaptors 155 shown inFIG. 8A. The current sensor 27 and the circuits including the CPU,processor and driver 2, 3 & 4 of the power outlet of FIG. 5B and of thecurrent sensor adaptor circuit of FIG. 5C are similar circuits usingwell known parts, packages and ICs in different combinations shown inFIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C.

The AC outlet of FIG. 5B is shown with setting switches 53 and 54 and anAC socket 28. The current sensor of FIG. 5C is shown without digitalswitches and with an AC terminal 29. The current sensor can combineidentical digital switches as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722.

The loader including the light bulbs loading accessories shown in U.S.Pat. No. 8,170,722 are mechanical optical accessories for directing theoptical signal while they feed power to the light bulbs during theloading of the addresses or the locations including the light bulbparticulars.

The U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722 teaches also another loading of addressesand particulars of the devices or the appliances, processed by theoriginal remote control units, such as the original RF remote controlsupplied with an appliances such as a television. Such RF remote controlcan be used for introducing an address into the RF remote controlsignals, commensurate with the programmed premises automation.

In all the referenced US patents and applications however no adjustmentor calibrations of power consumption reporting such as provided by theloader of the present invention are disclosed. FIGS. 7A˜7C show thesetup for processing the calibration of the power consumption reportingby the AC outlets, sub outlets and other AC terminals.

AC outlets and other AC devices disclosed in the referenced US patentsand applications are connected in a cascaded chain via the optical cablefor up to n AC devices, to an AC current drain receiver or to a commandconverter for converting the optical signals into electrical signals forpropagating the power consumption reporting via the low voltage buslines to the automation distributor and/or directly to the systemcontroller.

The simplified cascaded connections enables to optically link the entireAC outlets, sub outlets and other AC devices and terminals into a powerconsumption reporting grid in which every load needs to be itemized anddetailed.

The U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722 details the reporting via five Bytes commandprotocol referred to above, on the basis of an identified appliances bysetting each appliance particulars and its location via digital switchesor via loading the particulars into a memory of the AC outlets and otherAC devices via an optical link.

The loader 100 shown in FIG. 1 provides for such loading and updatingthe particulars of each AC outlet, sub outlet and other AC terminalsfeeding AC power through a current sensor. The identification of an ACoutlet, is a two-step loading, first is the room or zone number,followed by an outlet number. The preferred embodiment in the U.S. Pat.No. 8,170,722 provide for 8 rooms plus one common zone and up to 16 ACoutlets per each room or zone.

Shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B are the optical data reading processes, such asthe AC outlet number and the room number. This is prior to installing acode of an appliance that is intended to be connected to the AC outletof the present invention, such as recited in the referenced US patents.

The shown loader 100 is attached via its cable and plug 9 to theintended to be used AC outlet 28 with the heater 70. The loader 140 isto be connected via its cable and socket 8 to the plug 79 of theappliance (heater) 70. The optoport 15-2 of the AC plug 9 shown in FIG.1 is directed to the optoport 5 (now shown) of the AC outlet 28 forcommunicating an install command protocols such as loading the AC outletnumber, the room number and the appliance type code, which can be agiven code or a number assign to each type of appliance shown in theappliance code table of FIG. 10.

Shown in FIG. 2 is a loader 110 that is similar to the loader 100 ofFIG. 1 with the exception of the optoports 15-1 and 15-2 of the shown ACsocket 18 and plug 19 that are replaced by an RFID antenna, such ascoiled antenna 18R and 19R. Even though not shown in FIG. 2, the RFIDantennas 18R and 19R can be used along with the optoports 15-1 and 15-2and operate in parallel or selectively as selected via the touch screenicons TS1˜TSn or via keys K1˜Kn provided and shown in FIGS. 3B˜3F.

As will be explained later, the loaders 110, 130 and 150 can load theroom number, the AC socket number and the appliance code including thecalibration of the power consumption reporting via RFID communicationwhen the system is connected as shown in FIGS. 7A˜7C. This will bereferred to later.

The shown photo transceiver 5-4 of FIG. 1 enables the loading, updatingand communication between the loader 100 and an AC outlet or otherdevices having an optoport in positions accessible to the optoport 5-4in front of the loaders 100, 120 and 140 of FIGS. 3A, 3C and 3E. Thecommunications between a loader and an AC device or AC outlet pertainingto current drain or power consumption however cannot be checked, norverified by linking the optoports in air or via POF. To load, update,verify and/or calibrate the power consumption reporting, the AC powerfeed must be fed through the loader sockets 8 or 18 and the plugs 9, 19or 49 as shown in FIGS. 7A and 7C.

To adjust or calibrate the power consumption values outputted by the ACoutlets and other AC devices the load must drain the current through theAC outlet 28 or 38 or 48, or a socket or other AC terminals and throughthe loader. This enables the comparison of the measured powerconsumption in real time simultaneously by comparing the readings. Theloaders types 100˜150 are pre-calibrated by the manufacturer forproviding reliably verified values, on the basis of which the loader iscalibrating the measurement and the reading of the AC outlets, suboutlets and other AC devices.

As disclosed in the referenced US patents and applications the room orzone addresses and the numbering of the AC outlets are set via settingswitches or via loading the addresses (rooms, socket and other ACdevices numbers) into the memory of the CPU of the AC device, includingoptical loading directly via lightguide (POF).

The first step for optical loading via the loader of the preferredembodiment is to plug the cable 12 and plug 9 assembly into an AC outlet28 shown in FIG. 6A and switch on the loader, be it by touching thetouch screen 1D, or by pressing the on-off key, such as key K1 shown inFIGS. 3C, 3F, 6A and 8A. The switch-on will reset the loader andgenerate an inquiry command for identifying the room and/or the ACoutlet socket numbers, propagated via the optoport 15-2.

The display 101 of FIGS. 6B and 801 of FIG. 8A shows the reading of theresponse by the AC outlet 28 of FIGS. 6A and 8A when a room #1 and theAC outlet #7 are recorded. In 102 of FIG. 6B the reading shown are“none” recorded for the room/zone and #7 is recorded for the AC outlet.The reading in the display 103 of FIG. 6B shows a recorded room #1 but“none” recorded for an AC outlet. When both the room or zone number,such as 1˜8 and 0 (common) and an AC outlet number such as 1˜16 are notrecorded, the reading 104 of FIG. 6B will display “none” and “none”, or“no room and no AC outlet” are recorded.

The non-recorded items shown in FIG. 6B prompts the loading process bytouching first *1 the install icon of the loader 100 or by pressing thekeys K3 shown in FIG. 8A, followed by touching or pressing *2 forexample the room key K17, and continue by scrolling up-down the 1˜8 or“0” (common) icons or pressing a numeral key shown as KN1˜KN0 in FIG. 8Ato select *3 the room 4 number. Touching the “enter” icon or pressing *4the enter key K6 will load the selected number #4 into the memory of theAC outlet 28 as the room number or a selected zero “0” for the commonarea.

Next to install is the AC outlet number. As referred to above an ACoutlet may comprise a single AC socket or a plurality of sub sockets forwhich two type of addresses are provided via two icons or select keys,the single AC outlet key K13 for outlets comprising a single socket orK14 for AC outlet with multi sockets shown in FIG. 8A. Touching themulti sub outlets key K14 *5 or icon will automatically assign a subnumber from 2 to n for each sub socket, with the first socket, termedmain or master socket, is given no sub socket code.

The AC outlet number will be identified by a single or dual digits,selected for example from 1 to 16. The sub outlets are identified by acode such as a1 to a6, with the entire address code for the sub outletis for example 7a3 and display the sub socket to read 7-3, wherein the 7is the number of the main socket of the AC outlet 7 and the -3represents the sub socket 3 of the AC outlet 7.

To keep the address short it is preferable to use only single digit foran AC outlet comprising plurality of sockets. Pressing the multi outletkey K14 *5 or icon, followed by pressing a number 8 key *6 selectedfrom, as an example 1˜8, followed by pressing the enter key K6 *7completes the address or code setting for an AC outlet.

The keys of the loader shown in FIG. 8A may not include numeral keysshown in FIG. 8A as KN1˜KN0, instead a number for the room or the ACoutlet addresses select are displayed on the LCD screen and is scrolledvia the up-down keys K2 and K10 for selecting the number, followed bythe touching of the enter key K6 to complete the loading.

For an AC outlet with a single socket or an AC terminal that isconnected fixedly via the current sensor 51 of FIG. 5C to an appliance,such as a water boiler, it is necessary to install the appliance type orparticulars via the loader.

Touching the appliance key K18 *8 will recall an appliance or appliancepage onto the LCD screen 1D, 2D or 3D shown in FIGS. 3A˜3F for selectionvia the up-down icons or keys K2 *9 and K10 to scroll the list, or theleft-right keys K5 and K7 to skip pages and/or combination of left-rightand up-down keys to fast find the water boiler, followed by the pressingof the enter key K6 *10. This will record the appliance or particularsthereof into the memory of a given AC outlet 28 or into the memory ofthe current sensor 51 of the AC terminal 29 of FIG. 5C.

Unlike the fixed numbering, addresses or codes assigned to the ACswitches, AC outlets and their sub outlets or sockets, assigned on thebasis of their physical location within the premises, same cannot beapplied to the loads or the appliances being powered through the ACoutlets or sub outlets. The nature of the relations established betweenan AC plug being attached or plugged into an AC socket is anticipated tobe a random relation or random connection, particularly into an ACoutlet with multi sockets.

The optical signal solutions for identifying loads disclosed in the USpatents and applications provide an optical signal identification viathe AC plug of an appliance. For existing appliances with no opticalsignal identification, or for newly manufactured electrical applianceswithout optical signal identification, a current sensing adaptor withoptoport, such as shown in FIG. 5A of U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722, includingthe optical AC current receiver are used.

As optical grid or network is needed for propagating optical signalspertaining to the current drain and the power consumed by electricalappliances from the AC outlets or the current sensing adaptors, it ischeaper and simpler to introduce the optically linked AC outlets andlink them via an optical cable to a current drain or power consumptiondata receiver regardless of the means for identifying the appliance orthe appliance particulars.

The receiver 400 shown in FIG. 8C for receiving and converting theconsumed power data into electrical signals fed via a low voltagebus-line 420 to the system controller, such as the video interphone,shopping terminal or a dedicated controller are disclosed in thereferenced US patents and applications, can also feed or receive datavia IR in air or RF signal through an IR or RF gateways.

As explained briefly above, the installing of optical data pertaining toan appliance type or appliance particulars by a loader, similar to theloader disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,722 is simple and effectivefor introduction of fixedly connected appliances, such as refrigerator,washing machine, dryer and television that are continuously connected tothe same AC outlet.

Randomly connected appliances, however, such as hair dryer or steam ironor a food processor that is plugged into different AC outlet istroublesome. If the user desires to maintain a reliable powerconsumption reporting he has to repeatedly load the given appliance codewhen it is plugged at random to an AC outlet.

Users tend to avoid repeated routine loading or introductions in thecourse of their daily doings, particularly when such loading do notaffect the anticipated appliance operation and performance. For thisreason it is preferable to provide an “automatic” update, such as usingRFID tag in a form of a small sticker or label 29R attached to the plug79 outer surface between the plug's pins, shown in FIG. 6C.

The well known RFID tag or label requires no direct power connection asit is powered via its antenna, which in practice is a printed antenna.The RFID circuit is an IC package having sizes measured less than 1 mm²and is paper thin, such that it is assembled onto a self-stick label, insizes that can fit the AC plug surface in the vicinity of the plug'spins.

The use of RFID for identifying AC appliances and other objects viatheir plugs are well known and disclosed for example in the US patentsby Pourchot U.S. Pat. No. 7,167,078 and by Black U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,776that teach how to switch on the power when the RFID codes of the tag andthe reader match, or how to identify the location of the appliance bythe identified plug including RFID tag.

The identification of the room or zone and the AC outlet disclosed inthe referenced US patents and above, whereby the identification of theappliance location is based upon the recorded room and AC outlet numbersor codes, or via setting switches 53 and 54 of FIG. 5B, but not via theAC plug's RFID tag. The use of RFID tag of the present invention is foridentifying the load or the appliance, for enabling a routine powerconsumption reporting to be complete, by including the particulars of arandomly plugged load or appliance into an AC socket.

Low cost RFID tag is simpler to use when it is provided with a fixedcoded data, made shortest possible (in time) to minimize the drain ofthe stored power fed via the antenna. The length of the RFID code isdirectly related to the transmission frequency. Lower frequency bandsuch as the 125 KHz of the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, limits the length of the code substantially, as compared withthe HF band of 13.56 MHz, or the UHF band of 800˜900 MHz and/or theBluetooth band of 2.45 GHz.

Another important aspect of the RFID is the applicable distance betweenthe RFID tag and the RFID reader. The attempts to use RFID forcommunicating the location and other particulars of an operatingappliance mandated propagation into an extended distances of 5 m orlonger using the HF 13.56 MHz band or the UHF bands of 800˜900 MHz and2.5 GHz. Such higher frequencies enable the transmission of an extendeddata and protocols within the short times, measured in nano/micro secondunits, to the RFID readers, which propagate the read particulars througha wired or wireless network to a controller.

The use of 13.56 MHz or the UHF bands for communicating data between ACoutlets, AC sockets or AC terminals in close proximity requiresubstantial programming and shielding to prevent duplications,collisions and other difficulties with stray signals received by aplurality of RFID antennas such as in multi AC sockets of an AC outletand others. Since RFID tags provide very limited programming orhandling, the preferable use of RFID tags in home automationcommunication environment of the present invention is identifying of aload, which is achieved by a simple, short coded protocol.

The RFID circuit of the loaders 110, 130 or 150 however can communicatewith the RFID reader of the AC outlet. The RF and RFID circuit of theloaders 100 and 110 is a reader circuit similar to the RF and/or RFIDcircuit 6 of the AC outlets of FIGS. 5A and 5B. This enables the use ofloaders 110, 130 and 150 to install addresses such as the room or zoneand AC outlets numbers, including the reading of the current drain orpower consumption reporting, compare the power consumption readings andcalibrate, via two way RF and/or RFID communications between the loaderand the AC outlet, similar to the optical signal communications referredto above.

For verifying the power consumption by a load as measured by an ACoutlet referred to above, the load or the appliance must be powered viathe loader 100, 120 or 140 and the AC outlet, as shown in FIG. 7A.

The load 70 shown in FIGS. 7A and 9A is a space heater connected via itsAC plug 79 to the AC socket 8 of the loader and the loader AC plug 9 isplugged into the main socket of a multi AC outlet 28. The main socket 28and its optoport 5 are covered by the plug 9 and are not shown, but theoptoport 15-2 of the AC plug 9 is optically linked with the optoport 5of the main socket of the AC outlet 28.

The AC plug 79 of the space heater 70, shown also in FIG. 6A is notprovided with optoport or any other means, such as RFID tag, foridentifying the load. Switching on the connected space heater, being theload for the drained current, will activate both the AC outlet 28 andthe loader circuits, each to measure on its own the drained current andeach calculates the power consumption independently.

The LCD screens 1D, 2D or 3D can all display the electrical parametersinvolved, the AC voltage, the AC frequency, the AC current drained andthe consumed power, if so desired. For simplicity, particularly fornon-technical savvy users, it may be better to display only the consumedpower, as measured by the AC outlet 28, such as the 760 W shown in thedisplay 200 of FIG. 7A.

Touching the measure icon TS17 of FIG. 7B or key K16 of FIG. 8A recallsthe displaying of the power consumption as measured by the loader andshown as 780 W in the display 201 of FIG. 7B.

Touching the compare icon TS9 or key K20 as shown in the display 202 ofFIG. 7B will display the two readings 780 W by the loader and the 760 Wby the AC outlet 28. Touching the calibrate icon TS20 or the key K28 tocalibrate the AC outlet will generate at least one command for modifyingthe parameters of the program of the CPU 4 used for calculating thepower consumption.

Technical savvy users may want to know the reading and compare thevoltages and the current drain by both the AC outlet and the loader.Touching the V, A, Hz or W icon TS21˜TS24 and the measure icon TS17 willdisplay the voltage, the current and the frequency as measured andtouching the compare icon TS1 will recall and display the measurementsby the AC outlet and the loader for comparison (not shown).

It is also possible to adjust the voltage, the current and the power asmeasured by the AC outlet by touching an icon Vadj. Aadj. or Wadj. (notshown) followed by touching the up-down icons for generating commands insteps, as shown in the display 203, to modify the program parametersincluding the amplification control and the voltage reference, shown viathe I/O A and the I/O V in FIGS. 1, 2 and 5A, by small steps until thereading of all, the voltage, the current and the power as read by the ACoutlet match the reading by the loader or adjuster 100, 120 and 140.

The references above to touch icons TS1˜TSn and keys K1˜Kn refers to anyof the loader models shown in FIGS. 3A˜3F. The model 100 is shown withtouch screen 1D and with touch icons TS1˜TSn only. The model 120 isshown with touch screen 2D and icons TS1˜TSn and with keys K1-Kn. Themodel 140 is shown with keys K1˜Kn and a display but no touch iconsTS1-TSn. Same apply to the models 110, 130 and 150.

The models 120 and 130 use display screen 2D that is also a touch screenwith touch icons TS1˜TSn and push keys K1˜Kn that can be partiallyassigned to same functions of the touch icons TS1˜TSn, or both the keysand the icons area assigned with individual functions divided betweenthe touch screen icons TS1˜TSn and the keys K1˜Kn.

The models 140 and 150 of FIGS. 3E and 3F include a small display 3D andare operated by the push keys K1˜Kn only, even though the small screenshown as 3D can be provided with touch screen functions as well.

Each of the keys K1˜Kn of FIG. 8A are shown with a given function, butthe functions can be more than a single function. For example the shownpower key K9 for measuring the power consumption can be named V-A-W forproviding the individual measuring of Volt, Current (Ampere) and power(Watt) sequentially, with the screen changes its display from Volt toAmpere to Watt for each pressing of A-V-W key.

Some of the key functions shown in FIGS. 6A˜9A are not discussed above,but are well known and need not be explained in details. Other shownkeys such as reset key and not shown back (return) key or erase key,including remote functions keys for operating appliances and electricalcircuit are also not shown, but can be introduced if needed.

The numeric entry select keys 1˜10 are shown but given no identifyingnumerals or characters such as K-1 to K-0 to avoid confusion, insteadthe keys are shown in FIG. 8A as KN1˜KN0 and moreover as referred toabove, the numeric keys 1˜10 may not be used altogether, for the limitedanticipated use it is simple to scroll up-down the numbers displayed onthe LCD screen via the up-down keys or icons, thereby cutting the keysand simplifying the operation.

Same applies to the touch screen icons TS1˜TSn. The touch screen can beprogrammed for variety of functions and displays for loading appliancecodes by scrolling lists and shifting pages, for evaluating errors inentries of socket numbers or codes. Review entry duplications byrecalling data from the system controller or the system distributor,disclosed in the referenced US patent and application, via the opticalgrid and through the optoport 5 of any AC outlet or through an optoportof other AC devices, or as will be explained below via the RFID antenna7R of FIG. 2.

Shown in FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a loader or a calibrator 110, 130or 150 that are also shown in FIGS. 3B, 3D and 3F. Each of the threeloaders type differs from the others by the size of its display 1D, 2Dor 3D and/or the use of push keys K1˜Kn and touch icons TS1˜TSn, similarto the referred to above loaders 100, 120 and 140. The differencesbetween the three loaders 100, 120 and 140 group and the 110, 130 and150 group are the introduction of RFID reader 6 with antenna 7R.

The models 110, 130 and 150 are shown to replace the optoports 15-1 and15-2 with RFID antennas. But as shown in FIG. 7C the AC outlet 38 andsocket 38-2 include both, the optoports 5 and 5-n, and the RFID antenna38R and 38R-2. The shown plug 49 of the loader 100, 100R and 110provides optoport 15-2 and the RFID antenna 19R. The other shown plug 9provides optoport 15-2 only and the plug 19 is shown providing an RFIDantenna 19R only, making it obvious and clear that the optical optoportand the RFID antenna can each be introduced individually into the ACplugs 9, 19 or 19R to communicate with the AC outlet optical signalonly, RF signal only or both optical and RF signal.

FIG. 8A shows the display 800 of the loader 140 after it was plugged viaits cable 12 and plug 9 into the AC outlet 28 shown in FIG. 6A andbefore the AC socket 28 was installed with the room number #4 and outletnumber #8 referred to above and shown in FIG. 8B, including theintroduction of the appliance shown to be a water boiler 500 of FIG. 8C.The AC socket 28 and/or the terminal 29 of the current sensor 51 shownin FIG. 5C are shown connected via their optical cable to a currentdrain or power consumption receiver 400 disclosed in the US referencedpatents and applications, and shown in FIG. 8C.

The shown POF cable 15-3 is attached via a self-lock/release knob 115 toan optical access 5-3 of the loader 100R and to an optical access 45-5of the receiver 400. The back of the receiver 402 shows eight opticalaccesses or optoports for eight POF cables, but n optical accesses oroptoports 45-n can be provided and shown in 402. The front of thereceiver 402 shows only four optoports 45-1˜45-4, but here too 45-noptical two way accesses or optoports can be introduced.

As disclosed in the referenced patent and applications the receiver 400is connected via a non-polar 2 wire bus-line 420 that also feeds thereceiver with a low DC voltage needed to power the receiver operationand communication. The receiver 400 communicates two way with the systemcontroller directly, or via a system distributor. By this the loader isprogrammed to communicate with the system controller, all addresses andappliances particular, including current consumption records and pastdata via any of the optoports of the system.

The optoports in the front 401 of the receiver are intended forconnecting POF cables for receiving data from current sensing adaptors155 referred to above, but can communicate with AC outlets as well andare easily accessible to the loader for communications with thecontroller. The shown setting rotary switches 53 and 54 are provided forsetting room number and particulars of the outlets and/or current drainadaptors 155 connected to the receiver 400.

The shown loaders 100˜150 can install the room addresses and of thecurrent sensing adaptors and/or of the AC outlet via their front mountedRFID antenna 7R or optoport 5-4 or via the POF cable connected to theoptoport 5-3 of the loader, by loading the addresses to thecorresponding optoport 45 of the receiver 400, in which case the settingswitches 53 and 54 are not needed and are not used.

FIG. 9A shows a connection setup similar to the setup shown in FIG. 7Awith the exception of the heater plug 79R and the loader socket 48. Theheater plug 79 is shown in FIG. 7A to be without optoport or the RFIDtag 29R, while an RFID tag 29R is attached to the surface of the plug79R of FIG. 9A for identifying the load to be a space heater.

The socket 18 or 48 of the loader 100R comprising an RFID antenna 18Rfor communicating RFID signal and codes with the plug 79R. The socket 48further comprising an optoport 15-1, corresponding to the plug 49 shownin FIG. 7C for communicating both optical and/or RFID signals.

The loader 100R shown in FIG. 9A is an expanded loader 100 of FIG. 1 toinclude also RFID RX/TX circuits 17 in both the plug 19R and the socket18R by using a buffer IC 4 and/or a CPU 2 with extended two way ports,for all the optical transceivers 5, the RFID transceivers 17 and the RFor RFID transceiver 6. The model 100R with the RFID antenna included inthe socket 48 and plug 49 shown in FIG. 9A is therefore a combinationloader covering both RFID and optical identification of a load and forcommunicating with AC devices via optical signals and/or RFID signals.

As referred to above, the screens 1D, 2D or 3D display different iconsand are reorganized to display simplified content for operating a givenfunction or tasks.

The loaders can be supplied with accessories such as the accessories300˜330 shown in FIG. 7C to include standard resistive load 300 forcalibrating the loader itself to 100 W, several types are needed for thedifferent AC voltages such as 120V (US), 230V (Europe), 240V (UK andAustralia) or 100V (Japan).

A smaller standard load 310 for 10 W calibration, a socket 320 and aplug 330 with crocodile clips for measuring AC voltages, AC current,frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz) and power consumption. The clips are neededwhen the plug 9, 19 or 49 and/or the socket 8, 18 or 48 cannot beplugged to the AC electrical circuit and need such crocodile clips formeasurements by attachment to terminals.

The standard loads 300 and 310 for calibrating the power consumptionreading, by the loader itself and by the AC socket via the loader, arefurther provided with a self-calibrating version. The self-calibratingloads use simplified circuit versus the circuit shown in FIG. 1 or 2,requiring no touch screen or keys, a single optoport 15, a single RFIDcircuit with antenna 7R, or both and a limited program for loading acommand to calibrate the power consumption reading, for example 10W.

Such small circuit can be powered via a small series resistor connectedin line with the standard load. The voltage drop developed over theseries resistor provides the very small mW power needed to operate thecircuit. This also provides the auto switch on, resetting the CPU andcommunicating the calibration commands to the AC outlet by the pluggingaction, or by engaging or mating the plug 309 with the AC socket.

The simplified circuit is made small enough to fit into the plug 309shown in FIG. 7C. Moreover, calibrating power consumption by smallresistive loads such as 10 W or 20 W generates manageable heat. Thelower heat can be sustained by the shown plug-in loader calibrator 311,which is a plug-in calibrator, including a dual color LED indicator 312for confirming when the calibration is completed, or that thecalibration has failed, upon plugging the calibrator 312 into the ACoutlet or socket.

Similar variations or combination circuits and programs are introducedinto the socket 320 and plug 330, shown in FIG. 7C with optoport 15-2and RFID antenna 19R or with a combined optoport and RFID antenna asshown in plug 49 or the socket 48 of FIG. 9A.

Such optically and/or RFID communicating socket and plug are veryhelpful to electricians setting up and calibrating an electrical systemvia the loaders of the present invention, particularly when the systemis controlled by optical network including the monitoring of thepremises automation and for calibrating the values of the power consumedby fixedly installed appliances, some of which are identified via RFIDtag attached to their plug.

The ability to calibrate the AC outlets and sockets by a simple plug inaction, does not require two way communications and a simple loader canbe made cheaper if the coded commands are transmitted one way by an LEDtransmitter or RFID tag, generating just a command to calibrate the ACoutlet to the same value as measured by the loader. If the AC outlet iscorrectly calibrated the CPU of the AC outlet will ignore the identicalcommand received. Such calibrators will be of a lower cost and enlargethe range of calibrator-loaders of the present invention.

The display 801 of FIG. 9A shows the power consumed values to be 779 Was adjusted in small steps in the display 203 of FIG. 7B. Theconsumption value was not fully adjusted, because the reading by theloader shows 780 W and the reading by the AC outlet is 779 W. Thecomparison measurement does not concern the propagated signal by theplug 79R of the appliance and therefore no RFID select icon, such as K11of FIG. 8A is shown in FIG. 9A for reading the appliance code.

The function of the loader 100R of FIG. 9A as selected by step *1,touching the compare icon TS10, followed by step *2, touching the adjusticon TS11 is for calibrating the AC outlet power consumption readings insteps. Generally no communications are anticipated via RFID or opticalsignal with the AC plug of the load, because the adjustment does notconcern the type of the appliance. However, the shown combination loadermodel 100R does not need select icons for RFID or optical signal whencommunicating with the AC plug, as the loader 100R is provided with autosignal select function.

The imperfect calibration in steps of the power consumption value shownin the display 203 of FIG. 7B and repeated in the display 801 of FIG. 9Asuggest that the other measuring programmed parameters, such as thevoltage reference value and/or the current values may need to beadjusted individually. FIG. 9B shows the adjustment by steps of thevoltage, the current and the power consumption reading by the AC outlet48-2.

The displays 802˜808 of FIG. 9B show the adjustment made to voltage,current and power consumption reading, using the icons program of FIG.9A. The loader 100R of FIG. 9A includes auto signal select function,activated by the touching of the compare and adjust icons to read thatthe appliance is a space heater 70 via the RFID code generated by theRFID tag 29R shown in FIG. 6C. The appliance type is displayed in 802 ofFIG. 9B. The appliance code is communicated to the socket 48-2 by anoptical signal via the optoports 15-2 of the plug 9 or 49, and 5-n ofthe AC socket 48-2, both 5-n and 48-2 are covered and not seen in FIG.9A but are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7C as 5-n and 28-2.

The adjust power display 802 shows the appliance to be a space heaterand the shown power measured values 779 W versus 780 W are the valuesshown in the display 203 of FIG. 7B. As referred to above, the inabilityto calibrate the power reading through the power consumption calculationprogram parameters and algorithm, clearly identifies the need to adjustthe voltage reading, the current reading or both.

Step *3, the touching of the Volt icon TS21 recalls the adjust voltagedisplay 803, showing an error reading of 118V by the AC outlet 48 versusthe 120V reading by the loader. Step *4 is a repeated touching of the upicon TS4 until the voltage reading is adjusted to the 120V shown in thedisplay 804.

Next step *5 is the touching of the Ampere icon TS22, that recalls theadjust current display 805, displaying a low current reading of 6.3 Aversus the current reading of 6.5 A by the loader. Step *6 is repeatedtouching of the up key TS4 until the current reading is adjusted to 6.5A shown in the display 806. Step *7 is the touching of the Watt iconTS24 to recall the adjust power display 807 showing over reading of thepower consumption, 786 W versus the 780 W by the loader. Step *8 is arepeated touching of the down icon TS3 until the power reads 780 W tocomplete the adjustment processes.

RFID tags such as the RFID label 29R referred to above are low cost tagsthat are supplied, similar to a well known thin self-stuck labels, linedup, onto a ribbon roll or onto sheets 190˜195. RFID tags or labels areavailable in different forms. The preferred label is printed with givenidentification onto each label and each is pre-installed with apre-programmed code, such as listed in tables 700 and 701 of FIGS. 10Aand 10B. The printed/coded RFID tags or labels 29R of the preferredembodiment shown in pages 190 and ribbon 191 are shown in FIG. 11A.

The non-usable RFID tag is a blank label installed with identical codefor all the labels of the ribbon or the page or group, such labels arenot shown, because identical labels cannot be used with the presentloader or the AC plugs.

Other blank and non-programmed RFID tags or labels 129 of pages 192 andribbon 193 can be individually installed with a given appliance code ofFIGS. 10A and 10B. The labels 129 are shown being programmed orinstalled by the loader 100, 130 or 150 via its RFID antenna 7R in FIGS.11B and 11D. The blank labels 129 can be marked by a soft marker 199 asshown in FIG. 11B after they are programmed by the loader.

Numbered RFID tags or labels 139 are pre-installed with sequencing codesor numbers that cannot be changed or re-installed are shown on sheets194 and ribbon 195 of FIG. 11C. The loader models with RFID reader canread the codes as shown in FIGS. 11C and 11D and install the read codeinto the AC outlet affixed with a given appliance code at the time ofattaching the RFID tag or label 139 to the plug of the given appliance,similar to the loading of the tag 29R shown in FIG. 6C.

The size and shape of all the different RFID tags or label forms can bethe same, or can be printed/manufactured to fit the different AC plugs,be it US, Europe, China or other standard power plug of a given country.Same apply to the loader models 100˜150 and the combination models 100R,120R and 140R, they are provided with corresponding plugs 9, 19 or 49and sockets 8, 18 and 38, to commensurate with the country were they aredistributed.

All the loader models with RFID reader can communicate with any of theusable type of RFID tags. The RFID loaders can download an appliancecode, shown in the tables 700 and 701 of FIGS. 10A and 10B, to the RFIDtags that are blank and recordable, shown in FIG. 11B. The RFID loadermodels decode the code of the sequential codes or numbers of FIG. 11Aand affix to the code an identifying code of an appliance, listed intables 700 and 701.

The program of the CPU 2 of the AC outlet 28 includes a conversionprogram for converting an identified RFID code that are affixed to orappended to be a code for identifying a given appliance such as atelevision or a food processor or a shaver, having a sequentially codedRFID tag, attached to its AC or DC plug. The RFID tag can be attached toa DC plug that is connecting or mating the appliance to a power adaptorincluding an RFID reader or optoport.

Simplifying the identification of the appliance, the AC outlet to whichthe appliance is connected and the room or the location of the applianceis achieved by providing three small memory files. The first file is theroom file used for recording and storing a maximum of two digits foreach stored room number.

The second file is the AC outlet, sockets and sub outlets address, thisfile too is a small file for recording up to a maximum of twohexadecimal digits for covering 255 outlets, that fit practically anyresidence size, or a maximum of four hexadecimal digits for covering ACoutlets of very large offices or other businesses, including hotels withthousands of rooms.

The appliance code tables of FIGS. 10A and 10B clearly show that asingle Byte or 8 bits can well cover the entire conceivable present daysappliances. This means that the loading into a memory file a maximum of255 codes is sufficient to identify all the practical appliances in themany rooms of a residence or office for the purpose of measuring andreporting the current drain or the power consumed by each appliance,including the control of the appliances.

The smallest standard RFID tags and labels are coded with 32 bits, butcan be supplied with 16 bit codes. Such prefabricated and imprinted RFIDlabels with each tag is imprinted with the type of appliance and codedwith the codes of the tables 700 and 701 are very low cost RFID tags.The fixed serially or uniquely numbered codes are annexed to theappliance code stored in the appliance file of the memory of the CPU 2of the AC outlet 28, 38 or 48.

The decoded codes of the serially or uniquely numbered RFID codes can befurther propagated via the optical network of POF cables linking all theAC outlets of the system to the system controller and/or the systemdistributor, disclosed in the US patent and application referred toabove.

The optical network provide for uploading or updating the entire systemwith the unique or the sequential codes for enabling any and all of theAC outlets and sub outlets or sockets to identify the randomly pluggedappliances regardless of the AC outlet they use. Providing theautomation with the needed identity of random appliances plugged intoany of the AC outlets.

It becomes obviously clear that the loaders with RFID reader combinedwith the optical signal communications provide the means to introduce asimplified RFID tags for self-identification of appliances that arerandomly plugged or mated with the AC outlets, sub outlets and sockets,by simply plugging the plug to an AC socket 28, 38 or 48 or to a socketof an extended power cable with multi AC sockets, disclosed in thereferenced US patents and application.

It also become obviously clear that the use of the loader or calibratorof the present invention to install particular of appliances, AC outletsand locations, measure and calibrate for reporting the precise powerconsumed by a given premises, with the detailed precision that is neededfor such undertaking, is achieved with simplicity and at a low cost.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosurerelates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that it isintended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of theinvention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure, whichmodifications do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope ofthe invention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An RFID tag assigned with a code foridentifying a given type of an electrical appliance by attachment to afront surface about the power pins of an AC power plug powering saidappliance through an AC socket of an intelligent AC outlet, said RFIDtag comprising a low frequency band chip and a coil structured to fitsaid front surface and power pins of a given standard AC power plug sizeand shape with said coil directly facing an RFID antenna included insaid AC socket opposite said coil; said intelligent AC outlet includingone of said AC socket and plurality of AC sockets comprising one of abuilt-in and a connected circuit for measuring the power consumedthrough each AC socket, one of read and read/write RFID circuit and oneof a single and a plurality of said RFID antenna, said coil isstructured to limit the RFID code signal of said low frequency band forcommunicating in close proximity with only one said RFID antenna andpreventing stray signals from reaching said plurality of antennas. 2.The RFID tag according to claim 1, wherein said RFID tag and the tagsurfaces are selected from a group comprising pre coded and imprintedfor each given type of appliance, sequentially pre coded with aprogressing step for the reading of at least eight bit code per each tagfor self-imprinting, and blank RFID tag for self-installing ofprogressing eight bit codes and self-imprinting.
 3. The RFID tagaccording to claim 1, wherein said tag is provided in one of a labelform with adhesive layer and molded into thin plastic base with one ofattachment and adhesive layer.
 4. A method for identifying a given typeof an electrical appliance by an assigned code to an RFID tag attachedto a front surface of an AC power plug powering said appliance throughan AC socket of an intelligent AC outlet, said RFID tag comprising a lowfrequency band chip and a coil structured to fit a given standard ACpower plug size and shape for attachment to said front surface about theplug power pins with said coil directly facing an RFID antenna includedin said AC socket opposite said coil; said intelligent AC outletincluding one of said AC socket and plurality of AC sockets comprisingone of a built-in and a connected circuit for measuring the powerconsumed through each AC socket, one of read and read/write RFID circuitand one of a single and a plurality of said RFID antenna, said coil isstructured to limit the RFID code signal of said low frequency band forcommunicating in close proximity with only one said RFID antenna andpreventing stray signals from reaching said plurality of antennas, saidmethod comprising the steps of: a. attaching the RFID tag assigned withan identifying code to the AC power plug of said electrical appliance;b. attaching said AC power plug to said AC socket of said intelligent ACoutlet; c. operating said appliance; and d. reading said identifyingcode for providing said RFID circuit with data identifying the type ofthe electrical appliance.
 5. The method according to claim 4, whereinsaid RFID tag and the tag surfaces are selected from a group comprisingpre coded and imprinted for each given type of appliance, sequentiallypre coded with a progressing step for the reading of at least eight bitcode per each tag for self-imprinting, and blank RFID tag forself-installing of progressing eight bit codes and self-imprinting. 6.The method according to claim 4, wherein said tag is provided in one ofa label form with adhesive layer and molded into thin plastic base withone of attachment and adhesive layer.